It has been well known in the art to provide individual sutures in inner sterile packages which are sealed within an outer package. Packages of this type are shown, for example, in prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,147,861 and 3,256,981. The outer package is opened outside the sterile area and the sterile inner package is passed into the sterile operating room. The inner package is opened within the sterile area and the suture within the package can then be used.
There has been a need for providing ready access to the suture once the sterile inner package has been opened. To this end packages such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,363,751 have been developed so that by grasping the needle or a portion of the suture the entire suture can be readily withdrawn from the package. However, there remains the problem of opening a separate outer package to obtain a sterile suture and to do this requires considerable time and effort particularly when a large number of sutures are required within a relatively short space of time.